nauseous_monkey
Expert Member
A few years (post-apartheid) ago a representative of the University of the Free State came to my High school to recruit some new students to enrol at their university. He presented all the courses on offer, the vibrant student life and just when I thought everything was perfectly normal, he dropped a bombshell which left my entire matric class speechless: "At UFS we put you in a Culturally Specified Residence. We put you where you will feel comfortable amongst your people..." he continued to explain how at UFS they divide you up into a res depending on your skin colour... we sat speechless on the verge of both bursting into laughter or protesting in disgust.
Needless to say UFS was immediately removed as an option for tertiary studies for me. I also understood as a South African that the Freestate is not the most 'free-thinking' areas in the world... but kept my prejudices aside.
It is only now this past week when I feel that I was justified in my prejudice against UFS. I assumed that race was an issue... and now clearly the world knows it is an issue.
The re-integration of those racially segregated residences is the spark behind the current war being waged at UFS. They had a bad policy to start with and the University is fully to be blamed for the consequences. They created a little Apartheid in their backyards and now they have to deal with the consequences.
The video which has now been the driving force behind much debate and hype on the issue is a expression of the type of racial bigotry which exists in UFS. It is not just a video that is thus the problem... it is a state of mind which has been bread in that part of the world.
I recently spoke to a very close friend of mine who has a girlfriend at UFS and he told me after having visited her there what the atmosphere is like there (this being before the whole reintegration and video saga). According to him (white male - for clarity sake) he says that he has never been in such a repressive environment where people are clearly split up into racial groups. "The Blacks here, and the Whites there" he said, the atmosphere is stiff and whites would carelessly use the 'K' word to describe someone which is black.
UFS has major issues, and I blame the University for allowing and creating the current racial war being waged. It was inevitable.
<and yes I know you can tell me about reverse scenarios about blacks discriminating against whites, but that is not the issue. The issue is the climate that UFS has created and allowed, this considering that they are a tertiary educational institute.>
Needless to say UFS was immediately removed as an option for tertiary studies for me. I also understood as a South African that the Freestate is not the most 'free-thinking' areas in the world... but kept my prejudices aside.
It is only now this past week when I feel that I was justified in my prejudice against UFS. I assumed that race was an issue... and now clearly the world knows it is an issue.
The re-integration of those racially segregated residences is the spark behind the current war being waged at UFS. They had a bad policy to start with and the University is fully to be blamed for the consequences. They created a little Apartheid in their backyards and now they have to deal with the consequences.
The video which has now been the driving force behind much debate and hype on the issue is a expression of the type of racial bigotry which exists in UFS. It is not just a video that is thus the problem... it is a state of mind which has been bread in that part of the world.
I recently spoke to a very close friend of mine who has a girlfriend at UFS and he told me after having visited her there what the atmosphere is like there (this being before the whole reintegration and video saga). According to him (white male - for clarity sake) he says that he has never been in such a repressive environment where people are clearly split up into racial groups. "The Blacks here, and the Whites there" he said, the atmosphere is stiff and whites would carelessly use the 'K' word to describe someone which is black.
UFS has major issues, and I blame the University for allowing and creating the current racial war being waged. It was inevitable.
<and yes I know you can tell me about reverse scenarios about blacks discriminating against whites, but that is not the issue. The issue is the climate that UFS has created and allowed, this considering that they are a tertiary educational institute.>
